The title of Admiral of the Academic Affairs of a Province, the fifth-rank official, does not sound too big, but there are also fourth-rank officials, fourth-rank officials, third-rank officials...

As an admiral, he has no soldiers under his command, and he doesn't care about his official title. It sounds like he doesn't have much power.

Speaking of which, he is the director of the education department of a province.

It's just Ding Yi's status as a scholar. What does it matter if he is so awesome that the bad guys dare not take action easily?

Well, according to the calculation of the national period, a scholar is probably a senior primary school student. What is a senior primary school student? It means the senior grade of primary school.

Once calculated this way, it is very clear.

The man behind the scenes is at least the director of education of one province, and he is a primary school student.

Moreover, now that Ding Yi’s old robe has been dissolved, his reputation in the village has been ruined and even his servants have resigned. Here, the Xiangfeng Family Escort Agency will not transport goods to the Ding Family Freight Yard, and even the family business will be uprooted...

Ding thought one head was as big as two.

No matter how good your skills are, no matter how high your reasoning level is, no matter how powerful your ability to read facial expressions is, it really means nothing in the face of such a huge disparity in strength.

Could it be that Ding Yi sneaked into Ti Xuedao Yamen and went to find Huang Xuexian to kill him?

Not to mention whether Ding Yi, who has lost a lot of modern equipment and is very weak in body, can do this. Even if he does it, what's the use?

Because there is a problem that we have to face squarely:

That is the official envoy of Ti Xuedao in a province, also known as Xuexian. What is the point of sending someone to go undercover at Quan Yu's place?

This is too ridiculous. The imperial censor may have heard that he would risk his life to overthrow the eunuch; the feudal officials may have conflicts of interest with the eunuch, such as some later eunuchs who served as tax supervisors and mine supervisors, interfering with local affairs.

The executive power of the government; further up are the ministers, that is, the bachelors who are called prime ministers. They may also want to take action on a certain power. This is a power conflict between the outer court and the inner court...

A Ti Xuedao asked, for what purpose did he want to go against the eunuch? And would he have to wait until his death?

Regardless of whether it is ancient or modern, this is absolutely nonsensical. It is normal for the director of education of the state of Indiana in the United States to come to China to visit an elementary school. He went to give the FBI time to bring down a senior FBI official.

Leader? That doesn’t make sense.

Ding Yi is very sure that Mr. Huang, who teaches Taoism, is definitely not the leader behind the scenes!

As for who is setting up this trap, it is not Ding Yi's concern right now.

Because he does not have enough information and resources to discuss and analyze this matter, and more importantly, he does not have time.

"Master, it's been done." Uncle Zhong came over and reported to Ding Yi, who was slowly pacing in the backyard garden, "But the young ones wanted to see the master before leaving, but the old slave refused them.

." Now the loyal manager no longer has the mentality of trying to compete with Ding Yi, and no longer asks what to do, but just does what he should do.

These servants want to come to see Ding Yi just to get Qian Yin's gratitude; or they want to accuse the old housekeeper and Ru Yu of their "corruption" behavior. As Ding Yi said, there is no time for this kind of game of buying people's hearts now.

things, so Uncle Zhong directly rejected these people's requests.

"Which eunuch is it?" Ding Yi asked Uncle Zhong without any clue.

But Uncle Zhong replied carelessly: "God knows? Master, you come to ask me, but who will I ask?"

The master and servant could not help but look at each other and smile bitterly.

What is this thing called?

Uncle Zhong coughed a few times and said to Ding Yi: "It's just a letter with no signature and no seal. Who knows who it is? Master, you showed it to this old slave a few days ago. I thought about it for a few days and spent all my time thinking about it. It hurts to think about it, I don’t even remember that I had such a first acquaintance when the master was alive!”

As he spoke, he took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Ding Yi.

There are only six large silver characters on the dark green envelope: Ru Jin Xian's nephew personally addressed it.

That word seemed extremely beautiful to Ding Yi, but it was just a broken memory somewhere in his mind, but he was slightly disapproving of it: "It's just Taige style!" What is Taige style? Ding Yi didn't know, and he didn't know either. I couldn't find the broken memories of my predecessor Ding Xiucai in my mind, so I had no choice but to pretend that the voice didn't exist and continue to read the letter.

When I pulled out the letter paper, it was a piece of plain white ribbed paper. The letter roughly said:

The writer of the letter and Ding Xiucai's father were from the same hometown, and they had a cordial friendship twenty years ago. The exact date is not clear - because the text in the letter is "We have been together for 20 years, and I miss the old friendship." In the end, Is it really exactly twenty years? Who knows, in short - in today's days, the writer misses Ding Yi's father very much, because he can no longer find a true friend like Ding's father around him.

Then he said that he lacked close confidants to handle matters, and hoped that Ding Yi could go to the capital to help him. If Ding Yi was willing, then as long as he stayed at the Yuelai Inn in the capital, someone would naturally come to lure him there. See.

This letter ends here, with no signature, no date, and no seal.

Uncle Zhong smiled bitterly and said: "I have followed you for more than thirty years. The only thing I can be proud of is that I knew everyone all over the world when I was alive. However, if I have a conversation with you, I will not forget about it. But I can't remember that in twenty years How did the former master ever get to know such a person..."

At this time, Ruyu brought tea over and pouted: "Isn't this a letter from the master's old friend? I don't know what kind of power those bad guys made up from there, but it is the young master who insists on framing Nunu... …”

Ding Yi shook his head. Although he had no sense of belonging to this era, based on his previous life experience, he pointed out the crux of the problem very keenly: "You are wrong. The reason why they said that the person who wrote the letter was Quan Eunuch , probably apart from the fact that the person who sent the letter may have revealed some tricks, this piece of paper also confirmed their inference.”

Uncle Zhong looked at Ding Yi as if he had seen a ghost, and unconsciously took two steps back, leaning on the table to regain his footing. He raised his hand to Ding Yi tremblingly: "Master, how did you know that?" Today's messenger is the messenger. Come on, it was the old housekeeper, Uncle Zhong, who contacted me because Ding Yi happened to be attending a cultural gathering.

So Ding Yi did not see the sender with his own eyes, how did he know? As for the paper, it is even more incredible. For example, Ding Yi is already fifty or sixty years old, an old scholar who has traveled around the world, or he has become a scholar and has no intention of being famous and goes to pawn antiques. I've been the shopkeeper of the store for more than ten years, so that's all.

An eighteen-year-old scholar, is this something he can understand?

This shocked Uncle Zhong even more than the "corruption" method he casually threw out before. This was no longer smart.

Uncle Zhong couldn't help but hold Ding Yi's hand, and looked up, down, left, and right for clues. After a while, he asked: "Master, do you know what's wrong with this piece of paper?"

Ding Yi shrugged and said, "I don't know about that, but this paper must be different from the paper used by ordinary scholars. Otherwise, it would be impossible for Peng Zhang and his group to make a solid inference." Ding Yi followed him all morning. Peng Zhang, I have run several pen and ink shops in Rongcheng County, but I have never seen such paper.

Uncle Zhong let out a long sigh, and Ding Yi's answer made him feel relieved. If Ding Yi could even answer the questions on paper, Uncle Zhong might have to consider finding some monks and Taoist priests to perform rituals! But he still

Can't help but hold on

He straightened his stooped back, shook his head and sighed: "I have been in the world for forty years and have known countless people. There are people in the twenty-four states who are cold with the light of a sword, and there are young people who have won Jinshi, but I have never seen such wisdom.

Almost like a demon..."

I have been in the world for forty years. Although Uncle Zhong talked to himself very quietly, Ding Yi still heard most of it clearly.

This is inconsistent with Uncle Zhong’s previous behavior of calling him an old slave!

But when Ding raised his eyes and looked up, Uncle Zhong was still the old butler with a stooped back. The wrinkles on his face were so deep that they could kill mosquitoes. He looked harmless and old, respectful and caring:

"Master, the problem does lie in the paper. Although this plain white ribbed paper is rare in Rongcheng, it is not a rarity. You can also buy better paper and ink paper; it's just that the paper used for this envelope is not rare.

It’s no longer a folk thing.”

The paper used in the envelope was a color very close to that of blue and white porcelain. Ding Yi didn't notice it just now, he just felt that the plain white ribbed letter paper was quite elegant and not rich-looking, which made people feel very good; as for the ink

Ding Yi didn't pay much attention to the green paper envelope and the silver calligraphy. He also saw many gilded invitations in later generations.

"Is this paper expensive?" Ding Yi asked without understanding. There's not much point in hiding it. If you don't understand the things of this era, just learn it. If you keep pretending, you will only be unable to integrate into this era for a long time.

Era.

Uncle Zhong nodded solemnly: "It's not expensive, it's just something you can only buy in the palace if you have money and no place to buy it."

In fact, if Ding Yi was a history buff in his previous life, he would probably understand that even in the Wanli period more than a hundred years later, when one penny of silver bought a pound of noodles, a piece of porcelain blue paper would be worth two

To three taels of silver [Note]. Not to mention, this was only a few years away from the Xuande period when porcelain blue paper was invented. That’s why Uncle Zhong said he had money but nowhere to buy it.

Why use such precious porcelain blue paper for envelopes, but use ordinary white plain rib paper for letters?

Ding Yi thought for a moment and came up with the answer.

This old friend simply wanted to express one meaning: Even if his external identity is as precious as this piece of porcelain blue paper, his inner relationship with Father Ding is still as simple as this piece of plain white paper.

"It seems that he is really a close friend." Ding put the letter away and asked Uncle Zhong to keep it, but he couldn't help asking: "Uncle Zhong can't remember this person, and Rongcheng County doesn't know his background?" Because

They said they were from the same town, but there was a powerful eunuch in the town. There was no reason why no one knew about it. This was unreasonable.

Note: There are many articles on the Internet that quote "Wanshu Miscellaneous Notes", saying that a piece of porcelain blue paper is worth one penny, but the source is not marked in any of them.

The author felt that it did not match his memory, so he read the Ming Dynasty notes again. Sure enough, Volume 14 of "Wanshu Miscellaneous Notes". Expenditures. Palace ban: "The posthumous title of the Supreme Lord was noted and the imperial edicts were transcribed from yellow paper materials...three kilograms of noodles."

, silver three points; yellow

Seven consecutive pieces of paper, six hundred pieces, worth eight cents and four cents of silver; a batch of yellow paper, worth one tael and six cents of silver; nine pieces of porcelain blue paper, worth twenty-two taels and five cents of silver..."——————————

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PS: Thank you all readers for your support. Until now, the book has been unrecommended without any recommendation. With your efforts, I can finally appear on the "New Book List of Historical Contracted Authors". I am so touched! Please continue to work hard, let's see
Chapter completed!